The World That Always Was
by PhantomBPR
Summary: This is a continuation of Kingdom Hearts 2. This story tells what may have happened had Sora not finished off Xemnas in the final battle. He ventures to the World that always was and discovers a dark conspiracy about the hearts and the worlds.
1. Introduction

**The World that Always was**

**(A continuation of Kingdom Hearts 2)**

**PhantomBPR**

**Introduction:**

Barret Wallace walked into the tavern. The smell of cheap alcohol filled the air, almost intoxicating him upon inhaling it. Trying to keep himself to together, he then proceeded towards the bar. Several rugged bar flies sat drunk at the counter, spilt drinks by their sides. They had a running theme about themselves; clad in torn armor, scars all over their faces, weapons by their sides, the all around "Mercenary" look.

Barret then used his good hand to pull the poster out of his pocket. It was torn in a few places and was covered in desert sand but it was still legible. It was a wanted poster that held a picture of a man with a red cape and long black hair. The poster read: "Wanted. Vincent Valentine. Wanted for crimes against the nation. Dead or Alive: 2000 Munny. Barret scanned the bar a few times before his eyes caught something; they began to burn, for they had focused on something red.

He approached the red figure and noticed that this man also had an arm defect. This man's arm had been completely dismembered and was forced to replace it with a false golden arm. Barret had lost his hand when a crucial blood vein had been shot; he had been forced to have it amputated. Because of his line of work, Barret often needed to carry a gun with him so he had a "gun hand" grafted in its place. Barret sat down next to, supposedly, Vincent. Vincent began to mutter something.

"It must be difficult not having a hand." Vincent began. "I wouldn't know, I replaced mine long ago." Barret stood up on this and charged his gun. "Cut the crap!" He shouted. At this, several of the patrons dove under tables and the bartender reached for his shotgun. "Don't move!" Barret shouted at the bartender, taking his eyes of Vincent. When they returned, he found that Vincent had a gun of his own staring Barret in the face. "Let's not be hasty, sir." Vincent said. "Tell me, what is it you desire?" "Your head." Barret replied coldly. "Oh ho." Vincent stated cockily. "So I have a bounty on my head. Tell me sir, how much are they willing to pay?" Barret thought for a moment and wondered if he may be able to get more Munny out of sparing Vincent in return for pay.

"5000 Munny." Barret claimed. Vincent chuckled. "Bull shit, at the most they'd put 3500 on me, and that's only if they were sure they had hired someone who could do the job right. So tell me, how much were they willing to pay you?" Barret hung his head in shame and meekly said: "2000." Vincent was on the verge of hysteria. He finally said: "Well, I suppose one could always use the munny for a good gun arm bayonet."

Barret pulled his arm up to Vincent's face. "Give me one reason I shouldn't blow your damn head off right now!" Vincent's look remained unchanged. "Because I could pay you 5000 munny right here…that is, if you are willing to do something for me." Barret put his gun arm down and turned the charge off. "What do you want?" he asked. Vincent smiled, "I want nothing more than for you to listen to a tale I have to tell and become enlightened upon hearing it. After which, I want you to go out with this knowledge and share it with this world so that all may know that I am not the criminal you all seem to want to think I am."

Barret was not in the mood for heroic drama. "All I gotta do, is listen to you rant about your life, and you'll pay me 5000 munny?" "Precisely." Vincent replied. "Shit, that's good enough for me." Barret opened a trap door located at the bottom of his gun arm and allowed the ammunition to spill out. This relieved the bar patrons, they all returned to their original business. Barret ordered himself a drink and sat down.

Vincent returned his Peacemaker to its holster and began his tale. "This is a story of a man unjustly accused of a crime, all for trying to help humanity. This is a story that begins with the very beginning of our universe and quite possibly ends with its apocalypse. This is a story about the world that always was." Barret stared at Vincent for a while and finally asked: "What are you saying." Vincent then replied: "I'm saying it's a long-ass story, so if you need to piss you'd best do it now."


	2. The Flight of Xemnas

**Chapter 1: The Flight of Xemnas**

Sora's eyes were spinning. Whatever realm he and Riku had been pulled into, it was an epileptic's nightmare, bizarre images spinning around in a white abyss that was this Kingdom Hearts 2. It was hard enough to adjust one's eyesight in this world; fighting Xemnas did not make it any easier. By some miracle, he and Riku had won the battle. Xemnas stared at them, covered in bloody wounds. Without any words, Sora pointed his Keyblade in Xemnas's face and sealed his Nobody to oblivion…or at least that was what he had intended.

Xemnas jutted his hand out in an attempt to repel the light of the Keyblade, in this process his hand was nearly obliterated. "I will not let you have the door to the light!" Xemnas shouted. "I will not lose my second Kingdom Hearts to the likes of you! Kingdom Hearts 1 may have been light, but I refuse to have you molest my own Kingdom Hearts with your fragile light, I will kill you!" The effects of the attacks Riku and Sora had issued upon Xemnas were taking their toll; Xemnas was becoming more and more incoherent as time went on.

Eventually, the light from the Keyblade was diminished, as was most of Xemnas's right arm. Xemnas collapsed, causing this strange manipulation of the realm of light to also dissipate. The next thing Sora and Riku knew, they were standing on a beach. It was nighttime, Sora found himself engulfed with fond nostalgia of Destiny Isle. Sora noticed Riku was wounded. "Riku!" Sora shouted in fear. "It's nothing, he managed to strike me when he was draining your power and I had to knock him down." Riku explained. "Riku, you saved my life getting that wound. I'm not going to let you die!" Riku chuckled to himself a little. "Sora" Riku began to ask, "can you help me down towards the beach?" but before Riku's question could be answered, they both heard a terrifying groan.

Turning around, they discovered Xemnas's body, sans a right arm and covered in wounds. Somehow or another, perhaps by sheer will to win, Xemnas had survived the fierce fray. Struggling to stand up, he slowly limped down towards the shore. Sora felt paralyzed, his brain was telling him to finish this and kill Xemnas once and for all, but his heart told him to show the man mercy. Sora almost felt sorry for him watching this bloody shell of the man he once was linger on the point of death. He was struggling so hard just to walk, Sora couldn't bring himself to harm him anymore. Once Xemnas had finally made it to the shore, he sent his remaining left arm out towards the moon that was glimmering above the black water. A dark beam of light shot out from his hand and into this strange sphere, a door then appeared.

Sora and Riku then gasped in surprise, for when the door opened, light shined through. "Sora!" Riku yelled, "It's the door of light, seal it before Xemnas gets in." Sora rushed towards the ocean, but it was in vein, for suddenly, Xemnas regained his ability to fly and soared toward the door of light. He then manipulated the core of this door to light into a form of a teleport that he then disappeared through.

"Common Riku!" Sora yelled, "We gotta chase after him." "I…. can't move." Riku said meekly. "Riku, get up!" Sora shouted. "You're strong, you can make it." "I wish…I could.." Riku said. "But I'm going to have to swallow my pride this time, for I'd die if I tried to chase him." "Riku.." Sora uttered on the verge of tears. "Now's not the time Sora, we'll meet again I promise, but for now we will have to separate again." Riku said. "I'm not going to lose you again! I refuse to!" Sora yelled. "It's not good bye Sora, this time, I know we'll be together again." Riku explained. "But how, how could you know that?" Sora demanded. "Because I know _they_ will take care of me." Riku said, cocking his head back.

Sora turned around and found Donald and Goofy jumping out of a portal of darkness that had opened up. "Donald, Goofy!" Sora shouted. "There's no time Sora!" Goofy shouted back. "We'll take care of him, you gotta follow Xemnas, we can't let him get away!" Donald shrieked, almost in an inaudible tone. Sora ran towards the door of light and then looked back with tears in his eyes. "I can't risk losing all of you again." Sora said, not allowing himself to continue.

Riku merely stared and said, "If you don't go, you'll risk losing the entire universe." Sora was silent for a while and then finally made up his mind and asked: "It's not really good bye right?" "Never." Riku said. Sora looked a bit more confident now and said, "All right then, till next time I guess." Sora said, almost sobbing. "Latter…man." Riku said, emotional as well. Donald and Goofy looked as though they wanted to say something, but they knew this was a moment meant for Sora and Riku only. With that, Sora chased after Xemnas through the portal in the door to light, hoping that what Riku said was right, and they wouldn't lose each other again.

Sora went through the portal, and arrived in a rugged desert.

To be continued.


	3. Arid Steel

**Ch.2: Arid Steel**

Sora emerged in an arid desert world. The sun was high above the sky, and yet the sky was as red as a sunset's. Despite the high temperature of this world, Sora felt moderately cold as he first stepped on to this world, for great gusts of wind were blowing rapidly across this land. Rubbing the sand out of his eyes, Sora began to search for Xemnas. As he walked through this bizarre land, he saw no sign of civilizations, just several mountains and cactus plants.

An often occurrence in this desert were what looked to be remains of cities or buildings that had been destroyed long ago. Sora was relived with the fact that there did not appear to be any obvious Heartless anywhere, thus, giving him a short-lived sense of security. Sora continued walking through this wasteland for many hours with no sign of progress. Night was coming soon, it would be cold and barren, Sora knew he'd have to prepare, else he'd not be ready for it when it came.

Once darkness fell, Sora took refuge in a near by ruin and raided the remains of the building for any supplies. In the corner of this ruin, he found a large tarp that was covering something. He pulled the tarp off revealing boxes full of dried fruits. Sora was starving and cared less about the freshness of these supplies. He immediately produced his Keyblade, sliced the boxed open, and began his feast.

After having satisfied his hunger, Sora placed the tarp around himself and lied down upon the stone floor of whatever this structure once was. He slowly drifted off to sleep, but his mind would allow no rest, for it continued to poke and prod him as he worried about how far Xemnas had gone. He knew that Xemnas knew this world better than he did and would easily navigate it. Sora's mind continuously returned to the sight of Riku lying bleeding on that beach.

What felt like just seconds after he had fallen asleep were actually several hours. Sora was awakened by an odd noise that repeated itself over and over again, the sound of heavy metal slowly creaking closer and closer. Sora continued to lie, his face against the floor, as he listened to the noise continuing to grow. He became paranoid but felt paralyzed to fear and refused to get up. Still the noise was coming closer and closer, Sora knew that if he did not act now, whatever this was might in fact attack him. Sora jumped up and released his Keyblade to behold what had created this noise.

Sora stood face to face with three tall figures in metal armor. They were all holding large weapons, of course, they appeared to be very intimidating. But what frightened Sora the most, was not that they had him at point blank range with their weapons, not even the fact that they looked to be extremely more powerful than he, but the fact that they all held Keyblades. Sora just stared, the only ones he had ever seen wield Keyblades were he, Roxas, Riku, and King Mickey, and they all were wielders of the Keyblade, as such, no one else supposed to hold the ability to wield Keyblades.

Nevertheless, here they were, a group of metal clad individuals all with Keyblades. The figure closest to Sora, wearing blue metal armor and a red sash, walked up to him and grabbed his Keyblade, before Sora could respond, he began to speak: "So this is the mighty Kingdom Keyblade." The figure then began to bend the steel of the Keyblade, in less than a second; he had broken the Keyblade in half. "Ha!" he scoffed, as he threw the reaming halves of the Keyblade at his feet.

Sora was now unarmed. Without a Keyblade to attack or control magic with, he'd have to rely on his own brute force. Sora wasn't incredibly strong as he drew most of his power from the Keyblade, in short, he didn't stand a chance. The three figures began to back Sora into a corner. He knew his time had come; when he reached the corner he had lost all hope. He closed his eyes, winced, and awaited the pain of death. Just then, a gun shot ran out.

Sora quickly shot his eyes open again to find the figure standing over him, not making a move. It then began to cripple and fall, Sora had to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed by the huge knight. The other two figures stood looking around in confusion before then meeting the same fate as their former partner. Two more shots' ran out, and they were dead. Sora then jumped up and shouted out: "Who's there?"

No one answered. He tried again; "Who's out there?" still nothing. All of a sudden, Sora felt a cold breath upon his back; he spun around to find, to his horror, a tall individual in red caped leather armor with a cloth mask around most of his face. The man had long black hair and was holding a peacemaker in one hand and a nine-millimeter in the other, he also had a sniper rifle attached to his back.

The man made a motion toward the floor. Sora looked down to discover the discarded remains of his Keyblade. He knelt down to pick both pieces up, as he went to return to a standing position, he looked up and felt a shot of intimidation to the individual. He continued to kneel and merely uttered: "Who are you?" He replied:

"Your lord and savior, son. Vincent Valentine."

To be continued


End file.
